American Poetry of the Seventeenth Century

Reissued in response to demand, this definitive anthology of colonial American poetry is made available in a classroom edition, with annotatory emendations reflecting recent scholarship. The book presents 250 representative poems—fifty-nine printed here for the first time—accompanied by Professor Meserole's illuminating introduction, notes, glosses, comments, and catalogue of sources.

The poets represented range from well-known writers such as Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, and Michael Wigglesworth to personages not known primarily for their poetry—including Cotton Mather, Governor William Bradford, Roger Williams, and Captain John Smith—to the less famous such as schoolteacher Sarah Kemble Knight, lawyer Richard Chamberlain, and former indentured servant George Alsop.

The poetry here offers a wide range of expression, including love lyrics, religious meditation, political satire, elegies, and personal narratives.